A large number of different gaming machines have been developed to provide various formats and graphic presentations for conducting games and presenting game results. For example, numerous mechanical reel-type gaming machines, also known as slot machines, have been developed with different reel configurations, reel symbols, and paylines. More recently, gaming machines have been developed with video monitors that are used to produce simulations of mechanical spinning reels. These video-based gaming machines may use one or more video monitors to provide a wide variety of graphic effects in addition to simulated spinning reels, and may also provide secondary/bonus games using different reel arrangements or entirely different graphics. Video-based gaming machines may also be used to show card games or various types of competitions such as simulated horse races in which wagers may be placed. Game manufacturers are continuously pressed to develop new game formats and game graphics in an attempt to provide high entertainment value for players and thereby attract and keep players.
Both mechanical reel gaming machines and video-based gaming machines may be used to present a bingo game result to a player who has initiated a play in a bingo game. When used in the conduct of bingo games, these gaming machines may be referred to as “bingo player stations.” A bingo player at one of these bingo player stations may initiate a play in a bingo game using a player input arrangement associated with the particular bingo player station, and the result of the play in the bingo game is displayed at the bingo player station using the result display arrangement associated with the bingo player station. For example, where the bingo player station is a mechanical reel device, the mechanical reel(s) provide the result display arrangement and the various results in the bingo game may be correlated to reel stop positions. Continuing with this example, a straight line pattern may be defined as a winning result in the underlying bingo game, and this winning result may be displayed through the mechanical reel display as some number of a particular symbol aligned along a payline defined through the various reel symbol locations visible when two or more reels are caused to stop spinning. Alternatively, the stop position of a single mechanical reel may be used to represent a result in the underlying bingo game. A video-based reel-type game may present a bingo game result in a similar fashion. Video-based gaming machines may also serve as a bingo player station by showing a bingo result as a result in a card game. For example, a straight line bingo pattern achieved in the underlying bingo game may be displayed to the player as a poker hand of three of a kind or some other hand value. Regardless of the manner in which the bingo game result is shown to the player at the bingo player station, the result is ultimately identified from the play of an underlying bingo game. That is, the bingo game play initiated through the bingo player station is associated with a bingo card or a data structure representing such a card, and this bingo card/card representation is entered in a bingo game conducted in the bingo gaming system. The result of the bingo game play is represented by the manner in which the various bingo numbers (or other designations) used in the bingo game match the bingo numbers (or other designations) associated with the respective bingo card/card representation.
U.S. patent application publication No. 2004-0048647-A1 discloses an arrangement for mapping various result levels to various sets of bingo patterns to produce a desired prize distribution for a bingo game. This arrangement allows bingo probabilities, that is, the probabilities associated with achieving various bingo patterns in a bingo game, to be used to produce a prize distribution that is, for example, characteristic of a standard mechanical or video-based reel-type game. Thus, applying bingo pattern mapping as disclosed in U.S. patent application publication No. 2004-0048647-A1, allows the play of bingo at a bingo player station to imitate the play of a traditional gaming machine in which the results are determined in some random fashion to produce a target prize distribution.
It is known in traditional gaming machines to modify the prize distribution for a given game in order to make the game more exciting for the player. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,538 to Weiss discloses a traditional reel-type gaming machine which can be modified in the course of play to change the likelihood of hitting a winning combination of reel symbols on a given play. However, the Weiss patent relates to traditional reel-type gaming machines and does not disclose any arrangement for presenting results from bingo games or modifying the likelihood of any given result presented at a bingo player station.